The herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University houses the Academy's collection of botanical specimens. Because the Academy was one of the first scientific institutions in the New World, the herbarium holds some of the oldest and most important plant collections in the Americas. PH (the official, internationally recognized abbreviation for the herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences) has about 1.4 million dried, pressed specimens and plays a vital role as a resource for research on plants and on the history of American botany.

Online Database

Of the estimated 1.4 million specimens in the collection, about 42,000 are in the online database: ph.ansp.org. This database includes nearly 27,000 type specimens and about 23,000 images.

Collectors and Collections

The list of collectors whose specimens are housed at PH is a veritable Who's Who of early botany and scientific exploration in North America. The table below provides just a glimpse of the highlights of our special collections; for a more complete presentation consult Mears (1981). Notably, PH has all but a few of the specimens that were brought back from the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. (You can also check out the plants collected by Lewis and Clark in an online exhibit at plantsystematics.org or at the Lewis & Clark as Naturalists online exhibit at the Smithsonian.) B. S. Barton and G.H.E. Muhlenberg were early members of the American Philosophical Society (APS), the first scientific association in the New World, founded by Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram, and others. The APS herbarium came to PH at the end of the 19th century; other institutional and private donations have extended the scope and strength of the collection. (See APS Collections on Deposit at ANSP APS Collections on Deposit at the Academy.)

Examples of historically significant collectors and sources of specimens housed at PH

Collector/Source

Active Period

Specimens

notes

Benjamin Smith Barton

18th century

2,000

Many holotypes of Pursh, Torrey & Gray, Nuttall

Frederick Pursh

18th century

1,200

North America, West Indies

Henry Muhlenberg

late 18th-early 19th century

l7,000

Early Eastern US

Thomas Nuttall

Early 19th century

4,000

Western North America

C. W. Short

19th century

15,000

Worldwide exchange

Lewis D. von Schweinitz

Early 19th century

23,000

Worldwide, plants and fungi

The herbarium also has notable strengths that reflect the taxonomic or geographic interests of past curators and associates including F. W. Pennell (Scrophulariaceae, the snapdragon family; Asia and S. America,), E. T. Wherry (Polemoniaceae, the phlox family), T. C. Porter, M. G. Henry (Pacific Northwest), B. H. Long (Eastern US), B. Stone (Pandanaceae, the screw pine family; Rutaceae, the citrus family; S. E. Asia), and A.E. Schuyler (Cyperaceae; the sedge family). PH is the primary repository and source of information for these botanists' collections. Download a pdf on these and other collectors represented in the PH.

The Botany Department has recently upgraded its Type and Special Collections facilities and its Herbarium cabinets. The department is currently working on Virtual Types, which will make the Type Collection available online. See Curation Upgrades.

Founded in 1812, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is a leading natural history museum dedicated to advancing research, education, and public engagement in biodiversity and environmental science.

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